Pakistan would formally request for a $5
billion fresh loan package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in policy
level talks likely to begin from today (Friday).
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar would lead
the Pakistani team and Frank Jeffery
would lead the IMF delegation. Sources
said Pakistan would formally request for a
fresh loan of three to five billion dollars
from the IMF, as already announced by
the finance minister.
As Pakistan and the IMF are holding technical talks under Post Programme Monitoring (PPM) in Islamabad, officials of the
finance ministry, economic affairs division and State Bank of Pakistan briefed
the fund on Monday on budgetary targets
and economic situation of the country.
Media reports said the government has assured IMF that it would achieve budgetary targets for the next financial year.
It informed the fund that the country
would achieve GDP growth target of 4.4
percent, budget deficit of 6.3 percent and
revenue collection target of Rs 2,475 billion in fiscal 2013-2014.
Sources said Pakistan might face tough
conditions from IMF like imposition of
reformed general sales tax (GST) and increase in power tariff for a new loan programme, which would be a challenge for
the new government of Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The visiting IMF team has so far taken a
‘soft stance’ on the promised fiscal adjustments of 2.5 percent of GDP by reducing the budget deficit from 8.8
percent in 2012-13 to 6.3 percent in the
fiscal year 2013-14. The fund has extended its visit to Pakistan until July 4,
starting from June 30. The commerce
ministry on Monday briefed the IMF
team on exports target of the country
wherein SBP gave a briefing on the monetary policy of the country.
The finance minister was to leave for
Dubai on Monday night to attend a twoday conference, which would be held
jointly by the US Department of State
and Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce on
June 25-26. He would join talks with IMF
following his return to Pakistan.
Pakistan took $7.6 billion loan in 2008
under the SBA, which was later increased
to $11.3 billion, but the country was not
eligible for the last two disbursements of
$3.2billion due to its failure to comply
with performance criteria.

ISLAMABAD

P

APP

RIME Minister (PM)
Nawaz Sharif on Thursday directed the Ministry of Petroleum to
rationalise gas tariffs to
safeguard the common
man’s interest and give domestic consumers precedence in gas distribution
formula other sectors. Chairing a highlevel meeting convened to discuss gas
shortfall at the PM Secretariat, Sharif said
all resources be exploited and all avenues explored to overcome gas shortfall in the country.
He said different options to import gas from

neighbouring countries should also be examined. The
PM was told that work on Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline
project and Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
(TAPI) gas pipeline project is in progress and that India
was also interested in exporting LNG to Pakistan.
The meeting was informed that domestic consumption of gas constituted 28% of total national use of the
natural resource. The meeting was further informed that
in order to bridge the gap between demand and supply,
load management of gas was done, particularly so during
the winter season when demand increased exponentially.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Water and
Power Khawaja Asif, Minister for Petroleum Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif,
Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal Khan, Special
Assistant to the Prime Minster Dr Musadiq Malik, senior
officials from the PM’s office and the petroleum ministry.

Ever since the United States (US) Federal Reserve chairman announced that
the US central bank would slowly do
away with its quantitative easing program on the back of improvement in the
US economy, many currencies have
seen their value coming down against
the greenback. In Asia, this impact was
further fueled by a weak Chinese production data coupled with sell-offs in
capital markets. Contrary to this downward trend, the Pakistani rupee did not
face the same situation. In the last one
month the Pak Rupee (PKR) shed only
0.6 percent against the US dollar. This
shows that PKR is stable at a time
when the greenback is globally
high in demand, said analysts at
Topline Research.
Asian currencies recently
tumbled to 21-month low
after a US monetary policy
meeting on June 20, 2013 announced its plan to slow down
the monthly bond purchase
spree of $85 billion. Improvement on US economic front means that
the quantitative easing should conclude

in 2014 as long as economic improvement stays in line with the Federal Reserve’s estimates. Furthermore, reports
of contraction in Chinese manufacturing segment has also put additional burden on regional currencies. As a result
emerging market currencies such as Indian Rupee, Malaysian Ringgit, Philippine Peso and Thai Baht fell sharply in
the last few weeks. “At the time when
regional currencies are experiencing a
free fall against a strengthening dollar,

PKR has maintained its stability,” said
Topline analysts adding that: “We believe that change in political canvas is
the prime reason behind the rejuvenated
investor confidence that has brought
$59 million to Pakistan’s stock market
in the past 30 days, and $208 million
since elections while PKR has depreciated by only 0.6 percent in the past
month”. The cumulative foreign inflow
of $1.2 billion, including Jan-May net
foreign direct investment (FDI) of $761
million and YTD FIPI of $410 million,
has helped in easing the burden of IMF
repayments worth $1.4 billion, they
added. Talks ongoing with the visiting IMF team regarding a fresh loan
of $4.5-5 billion also kept
PKR stable. “This coupled
with other likely inflows
from US and Saudi Arabian oil facility is
likely to provide stability to Pakistan’s
forex reserves and help
the country make IMF
payment of $1.8bn in
1HFY14,” analysts said. However, in order to compete in the exports market, some decline in PKR
cannot be ruled out, they said.

Polish firm starts
gas Production
in Pakistan

WARSAW: Polish firm PGNiG commenced production of natural gas from
two wells in the Rehman field, located in
the Kirhtar licence, Sindh. The gas is
being fed to the Pakistani transmission
system. Initially, during test production,
the wells will provide around 100 million
cubic metres of gas per year. Test production is scheduled to continue for 22
months. Natural gas resources in the
Kirthar licence area have been estimated
at approximately 12 billion cubic metres.
PGNiG’s interest in the licence is 70%,
with Pakistan Petroleum Ltd holding the
remaining 30%. The Kirthar licence,
which was acquired in 2005, is located in
southern Pakistan, in the western part of
Sindh. The field’s entire output will be
purchased by Pakistani authorities. After
Norway, Pakistan is the second country
where PGNiG has launched production
from its own fields. ONLINE

Pakistan eyes US market
ISLAMABAD
APP

Pakistan seeks tariff concessions and
greater access to United States (US) market
in order to boost gross domestic production
(GDP) growth in coming years, senior government officials and diplomats said.
Talking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of second US-Pakistan business opportunities conference, they were confident
of positive outcomes and quick progress on
key issues to remove tariff barriers and obstacles, hurting bilateral trade and investment.
“This meeting is a sequel to the London conference held in October, which was
a good start and we need to build on and
further the positive bilateral trade between
US and Pakistan,” Munir Qureshi, secre-

tary, ministry of commerce, said.
Pakistan and the US have made significant progress on bilateral Trade and Investment (BIT) treaty at the second
US-Pakistan business opportunities conference.
Javed Malik, former ambassador and
adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
said progress on BIT was encouraging and
the two sides would soon sign the agreement. He said there was wide scope for US
and Pakistani businessmen to increase cooperation in various key sectors like energy, agriculture, education, IT and
telecom, among others.
Responding to a question on the USPakistan conference, Malik said it was a
very successful event, which laid down
foundations of better understandings and
future cooperation. He said Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif was committed to promoting
e-government in order to facilitate businesses and citizens of the country. He said
the third US-Pakistan business opportuni-

ties conference was likely to be held in
Pakistan, however there no decision had
been made.
He said Pakistan urged the US government to extend the period of Generalised
System of Preferences (GSP) for more than
one year as it was presently renewed on a
yearly basis.
“We are very keen to see Pakistani textiles gain access to the US market on
favoured terms or at least on similar terms
as offered to other least developed countries. This would have negligible impact on
domestic US manufacturing, but will help
Pakistan in reclaiming some of its lost market share,” he said.
Currently, Pakistan’s exports under the
GSP programme stand at $195 million,
which is five percent of Pakistan’s total exports to the US. “There is immense potential to increase this figure many folds,” he
observed.
Pakistan’s share of the US global imports of textile and apparel products cur-

rently stands at around three percent. It has
seen little change since the quotas were removed in 2005 while market share of other
Asian exporters including China,
Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia have
grown exponentially.
Pakistan’s textile and apparel manufacturers have a mutually complementary relationship with the US cotton industry. In
recent years, Pakistan’s annual average cotton import from the US is worth $300 million, which may grow significantly once
preferential access is granted.
“We have set up Special Economic
Zones (SEZ) for private investors, public
sector and private-public joint ventures. Investors should come and invest in these
zones as their income is now exempted
from income tax for 10 years instead of
five years. There is no bar on profit repatriation and all foreign investors will be
treated at par with local businessmen,” he
added. Responding to a question on investment in energy sector, he said the govern-

ment was considering setting up LPG terminals in the country. “We have discussed
LPG terminals in details at the conference
and invite US, European and UAE investors to install these units in the country.”
Stephen Snyden, chief executive of an
IT company, said Pakistan offered a congenial environment for investment in IT.
He said the workforce available in Pakistan
was of international standards. He mentioned that the labour cost is half of the cost
incurred in employing equally skilled
workforce in India.
A Pakistani business delegate in IT,
Raza Saeed, apprised participants that out
of $500 million advertisement market, only
one percent ($5 million) is being covered
by online advertisement. “So, there is a
wide gap which can be covered through investment in this sector,” he added.

PRO 28-06-2013_Layout 1 6/28/2013 4:27 AM Page 2

02

bUSineSS B
Friday, 28 June, 2013

aPcnga
rejects 9%
hike in gst
ISLAMABAD

GST hike ups inflation
to 7.15 percent in June

NNI

KARACHI

The All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Thursday said the decision of
the government to jack up General Sales
Tax (GST) on sale of CNG by nine percent is unjust and unilateral.
Stakeholders were not taken into confidence regarding the decision to revise
GST on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
which came as a great surprise, said APCNGA Supreme Council Chairman Ghiyas
Abdullah Paracha. In a statement, he said
all gas consuming sectors including a majority of other sectors were paying 17 percent GST, adding that CNG sector was
already the most taxed sector.
He said the procedure to collect GST
needed improvement as CNG operators
had been denied adjustments in GST on
purchases of diesel and electricity.
Paracha said the decision will increase retail price of CNG, which will hurt 3.5 million motorists using the fuel and 80
million people who use the economical
fuel on a daily basis.
Despite being heavily taxed, the CNG
sector was being denied provision of natural gas to run operations, said Paracha.
He said some influential elements were
bent upon bankrupting CNG station owners to deprive masses from economical
fuel and to realise a plot to import costly
liquid gasses.

STAFF REPORT

T

HE Consumer Price Index (CPI)
inflation is expected to settle during the month of June at 7.15
percent year-on-year (YoY) compared to last month’s 5.13 percent YoY, said the analysts. On a
monthly basis CPI is expected to clock in at 1.96%,
they added. “An increase in General Sales Tax
(GST) by from 16% to 17% imposed in the budget
is the main culprit behind the significant increase
in inflation during June, 2013,” viewed InvestCap
analyst Abdul Azeem.
Moreover, he said, food inflation during the
month (higher 2.4% MoM) is expected to be the
major contributor, despite the government directive
of no increase in GST on essential food items. By
incorporating the June, 2013 data, full-year CPI inflation on a moving average basis is expected to
conclude at 7.5% for FY13, down by 2% from an
initial target of 9.5%, he said.
The shrinking spread of
banking
industry,
after 50 basis
points (bps) decline in policy rate
to 9% urges banks to
introduce
new
schemes for consumer loans, personal loans and car
financing.

The cheaper and readily available consumer financing is expected to increase the purchasing
power of consumers which ultimately caused inflation to surge, said Abdul Azeem.
Moreover, he said, the present expansion in
broad money supply was largely due to higher government borrowing for budgetary support owing to
heavy debt servicing and subsidies. Monetary expansion with heavy borrowing leads to dipping private sector growth and provides high inflation
potential, he added. Moreover, another factor is the
presence of external risk, where any
pressure on foreign reserves by
net imports and repayments of
foreign loans could magnify its
impact on currency depreciation leading to high domestic
inflation. “We expect the interest rates will remain stable at
current level and no further easing during 1HFY14 is likely,” the analyst
added.
“Analyzing the prevalent
trend of the CPI, coupled with the
latest numbers released, we expect CPI for FY14 will remain in
the range of 9.0% to 9.50%,”
said the analyst. During FY13,
he said, the monthly average
CPI remained at 0.58%. Even after
assuming 0.75% inflation in each
month of FY14, the resultant CPI
is likely to settle around 9% YoY
on a moving average basis.

Sindh Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman
Zubair Motiwala on Thursday invited
Malaysian investors to come to Pakistan
and explore possibilities of investment and
joint ventures in Sindh because of its
“thriving industrial base, natural resources,
well developed infrastructure, competitive

human resource, two major ports, sophisticated communication network, modern financial and services sector and
investor-friendly policies”.
“We assure you that you would get the
most promising destination for business
and investment in Sindh,” he said while addressing a roundtable discussion attended
by more than 30 business leaders and investors in Kuala Lumpur, read a statement.

Pakistan High Commissioner to
Malaysia Shahid Kiani and Pakistan’s honourary investment counsellor in Malaysia
Datuk Salim Fateh Din were also present.
Motiwala said Sindh being the second
largest province of Pakistan was playing a
pivotal role in national economic and development agenda. He said the province
had the country’s largest port city in
Karachi and comprised 23% of Pakistan’s

population and 18% of its land area. “With
23% of country’s population, its contribution to the national GDP is around 33%
while the province collects 70% of Pakistan’s income tax and 62% of sales tax,”
he said. He said Sindh had also emerged as
a hub of business and investment opportunities because of its rich natural resources.
“Its competitive advantage rests on its
strategic location as major seaports, along

with its extensive industrial infrastructure,
350 km long coastline and the potential to
generate renewable energy, abundant fertile
land, plenty of agricultural, natural and
mineral resources, better educational system, a young and educated workforce and
a politically strong and stable government
had given the impetus for some of the
world’s leading multinational corporations
to set up base in Sindh,” he said.

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD: Dr Qadeer Khan presents the
1st FPCCI Achievement Award to Khalil
Sattar, CEO of K&N’s, for his outstanding
contribution to national economy and
advancement in field of poultry. PR

Vice President (DSVP), Emirates SkyCargo. He takes
over from Ram Menen, who retired from Emirates in
early June. He previously served as DSVP for
Revenue Optimisation and Distribution. Richard
Jewsbury assumes the role of DSVP Revenue
Optimisation and Distribution after serving as Senior
Vice President (SVP) Commercial, Europe & Russian
Federation. Adnan Kazim takes on the role of DSVP,
Planning, Aeropolitical and Industry Affairs a move
from his role as DSVP Planning & Research. Salem
Obaidalla, formerly SVP Australasia assumes the
role of SVP Aeropolitical and Industry Affairs. PR

nbP launches foree home
remittance services

emirates announces
new senior management
appointments
LAHORE: Emirates, one of the world’s fastest
growing airlines, recently announced new
appointments to senior management roles within
the organization which mirror the company’s growth
and expansion. Adel Al Redha has been named
Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Operations
Officer, responsible for Engineering, Flight
Operations, Service Delivery and Airport Services.
Al Redha has been with Emirates since 1988 and
previously served as EVP Engineering and Ops and
has held several other roles within the organisation.
Thierry Antinori has been named Executive Vice
President and Chief Commercial Officer responsible
for Commercial Operations, Revenue Optimisation,
Skywards, Destination and Leisure Management and
Emirates SkyCargo. With more than 25 years in the
aviation industry, he joined Emirates in 2011 as EVP
of Passenger Sales Worldwide. Nabil Sultan, who
has held numerous commercial roles in his 20 years
with Emirates, has been appointed Divisional Senior

provides Forex & Remittance Services to its clients
globally. NBP already has Home Remittance
arrangements with leading exchange companies of
UK such as Dollar West & AN Express. PR

uth pack premiers World
War Z for its customers
KARACHI: Ufone, the leading cellular company in
the country, hosted an exclusive premier of the
much awaited Hollywood movie ‘World War Z’ for its
valued Uth Pack customers in Lahore, Karachi and
Rawalpindi. The newly launched Uth pack by Ufone
not only has brought this movie to Pakistani
Cinemas, but also offered a chance to win free
premier passes to its customers for subscribing to
the bundle called the TNT bundle. The Uth pack
facebook contest winner also got a chance to watch
the movie. On the other hand, Uth Pack also gave
free movie tickets against a recharge of rupees
1000. Each customer got 3 free movie tickets
against a recharge of Rs.1000/-. The offer was valid
from service centers as well activation points. PR

Ptcl offers one month free
usage for new eVo customers
KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan is aggressively
expanding its outreach to facilitate overseas
Pakistanis across the globe. In this regard and to
further explore new strategic avenues Mr. Khalid Bin
Shaheen, SEVP/Group Chief - NBP and Chairman
NBP Exchange Company Limited recently launched
home remittance services through Lotus Forex (P)
Ltd. UK. Mr. Shaheen is seen inaugurating the service
in London (on right) along with Mr. Subbiah
Venkatachalam, Senior Official of Lotus Forex (P) Ltd.
Lotus Forex (P) Ltd – UK is a part of Orient Exchange
Co. (UAE) and is recognized as the number one
agent of Western Union Money Transfer in the Asia
Pacific Region. It has 80 locations in 7 countries and

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company
Limited (PTCL), the largest ICT service provider in
the country, has announced one month free usage
for all new EVO 3.1Mbps customers. The new offer
enables customers to enjoy one month free video
streaming, web casts, online games and a host of
other applications. Customers can avail this offer till
20th August 2013. To further facilitate the existing
inactive EVO customers, PTCL is offering a 15 day
trial of all EVO services (500 Mb free internet usage
or 15 days, whichever comes first) with exemption
on previous outstanding dues. The reconnect offer is
applicable for all EVO Dongle, EVO Nitro, EVO Wi-Fi
Cloud, EVO Nitro Cloud and EVO Tab customers, who
have not recharged their accounts since 1st March

2013. Omer Khalid, PTCL Executive Vice President
(EVP) Wireless Services commented at the launch
“Through constant innovation, wide range of
products and the most economical packages, PTCL
EVO has become one of the most powerful brands in
Pakistan. This offer is an attempt to reward our
valued customers and to appreciate their support in
making PTCL EVO a successful brand”. PR

farmers advised to use best
quality hybrid corn seeds

LAHORE: The farmers must use the best quality
hybrid seeds to enhance the yield of corn or maize,
which is widely used as food and feed, as low quality
hybrids can result in huge losses in production. Though
after the introduction of hybrid maize in Pakistan,
farmers have gradually shifted to high-yielding hybrid
maize from traditional or open pollinated varieties
(OPVs) but most of the farmers fail to get the desired
production because of use of substandard hybrids and
old farming practices. The adoption of best quality
hybrids is also important because the weather patterns
are changing and farmers desperately need such
seeds to could cope with the harsh weather
conditions, fit in changing crop rotations and most
importantly provide the much-needed economic
benefits to the farmers especially the small ones.
This was the upshot of discussions between
Monsanto Pakistan’s agricultural experts and a large
number of farmers who visited the hybrid corn field
trial sites in Sahiwal. The field site - “DeKalb Learning
Centre” - serves as a learning centre for farmers. PR